Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Preachers from the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance have made nearly 21,500 visits to inmates in prisons in a number of countries around the world last year.

Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe and Africa during 2018,

According to a report in the Arabic daily Al-Watan on Saturday quoting a statistical report issued by the ministry, Saudi preachers visited prisons on all continents, including the Gulf countries and Australia.

The ministry said the visits were aimed at presenting the beauty of Islam to non-Muslim inmates and invite them to the religion. The preachers answered the prisoners’ queries on the religion and corrected many misconceptions about Muslims and Islam. They also extended various services to Muslim communities living in those countries.

According to the report, 49 visits were made to prions in Dubai, seven in Jordan, 444 in India, 142 in Malaysia, 50 in Bangladesh and 92 in Kazakhstan.

The report said the bulk of these visits were in southeast Asia. They made 852 visits to prisons in Indonesia in coordination with the office of the Saudi religious attaché in Jakarta while 154 visits were made in Thailand and 274 in the Philippines.

According to the ministry, the largest number of visits in Europe was made to prisons in Britain, which reached 4,301, while 300 visits were made to prisons in France.

It said 40 visits were made to prisons in Canada, 74 in Australia and 1,204 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In Africa, 12,000 visits were made to prisons in Sudan, which was followed by Ethiopia with 611 visits, Senegal 250, South Africa 182 and Kenya 126.

The ministry said the visits also aimed at distributing the translations of the Holy Qur’an in various languages and combating extremist ideology.